'Nothing wrong with it': ISRO chief Somanath reacts to Chandrayaan-3's touchdown point 'Shivshakti' name

ISRO chief's reaction on Shivshakti: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi named the touchdown point of India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 and its predecessor on the Moon ‘Shivshakti’ and ‘Tiranga Point’, ISRO chief S Somanath on Sunday (August 27) said that there is nothing wrong with it, adding that both are “Indian-sounding names”.

The ISRO chief said that being the Prime Minister of the country, Modi has the prerogative of naming the points.

PM Modi on Saturday addressed the ISRO scientists and named the point where Chandrayaan-3 landed as ‘Shivshakti’ and Chandrayaan-2 as ‘Tiranga Point’.

"The point where Chandrayaan-3 landed, that point was named as 'ShivShakti'. Shiv ki baat hoti hein toh Shubham hota he aur Shakti ki baat hoti hein toh mere desh ki Nari Shakti ki baat hoti hai'. Chandrayaan-2 point was named as 'Tiranga'", PM Modi said.

ISRO chief talks about the name ‘Shivshakti’

Somanath said that the Prime Minister narrated the meaning of the name which “suited” us.

“PM narrated the meaning of it in a manner that suits all of us. I think there is nothing wrong with that. And also he gave the next name to Tiranga and both are Indian-sounding names. See, we must have a significance of doing what we are doing. And he has a prerogative of naming it being the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.

Sanjay Raut says Shivshakti point should be named Vikram Sarabhai or Nehru

Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut said that the landing point of Chandrayaan-3 should be named Vikram Sarabhai or Nehru.

“What else can BJP do? I think the place where Chandrayaan unfurled the tricolor should be named after Vikram Sarabhai, this has been possible only because of the great work of Sarabhai and Pandit Nehru ji. Nehru ji has a big contribution, but you forget the scientists and everywhere you bring Hindutva. We also believe in Hindutva, but some things are related to science, where it is not right to bring Hindutva, this has been said by Veer Savarkar only,” the UBT leader said.

ALSO READ | Chandrayaan-3’s touchdown point should be named Vikram Sarabhai or Nehru: Sanjay Raut

ISRO chief talks about Pragyaan rover

Talking about the Pragyaan rover which is roaming the surface of the Moon, collecting data, the ISRO chief said that everything is on the track and all experiments are expected to complete in the next few days.

“Everything is working very well. #Chandrayaan3, the lander, the rover is very healthy and all the five instruments on board have been switched on. And it's giving beautiful data now. So we are hoping that in the days to come next another ten more days remaining before 3rd September, we should be able to complete all the experiments with its full capability of various modes. There are different modes for which it has to be tested... So we have the best picture ever of the Moon,” he said.

Somanath, who visited Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday night for the first time after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, said that he explores both science and spirituality for which he visits temples and reads scriptures.

He said that he does science for outer self and visits temples for inner self.

“I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples,” he said.

(With ANI inputs)

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